Top Android apps and games of the Week #33

Since its inception, Google has grown beyond its initial mission statement of providing the world with information and added stuff like Android, YouTube, etc. as well as futuristic projects such as driverless cars and providing internet through drones. The search giant is now part of a new parent company called Alphabet, but this doesn’t change much for users as its consumer-facing businesses are all part of Google, including Android.

Now, let’s check out some key apps that arrived or got updated on the Play Store this week and deserve your attention. This time, we have some interesting ones, that allow you to capture impressive selfies or get rid of notification spam. There are some exciting games lined up for you as well.

With selfies becoming so popular, it was only a matter of time to see dedicated apps for helping you to capture better self portraits. Bestie comes from the team behind popular camera replacement app, Camera 360 and offers a ton of features such as selfie filters, face retouching, blur or vignette, etc. It also allows you to capture selfies in low-light environments by automatically reducing the noise. The app also has an option to share your selfies instantly via social networks.

Cleartrip, one of the leading travel booking services in India has added a new tab to its app called Cleartrip Activities. The feature provides 5,000 curated list of activities in over 25 cities, ranging from cycle rides to food trails to even scuba diving. Users can view all the details of these activities such as who’s conducting them, venue details, date and time, and if interested, they can instantly book by paying online.

With so many apps on your smartphone, comes the hassle of numerous notifications. While some of them are really useful, others are simply noise and clog your notification panel. If you feel the same, then Snowball is here to help you manage these notifications smartly as it categorises them into important and everything else. You can easily prioritise a notification or mark it as spam, and the app will become smarter over time. The app replaces the default notification bar, and hence it also offers its own version of quick toggles.

Google introduced Chrome experiments to showcase its browser’s capabilities to developers, and now the search engine giant has introduced Google Creative Labs for interesting apps for Android devices. Tunnel Vision records your surroundings, and instead of just photos or videos, you can add different filters to them. Each filter can be zoomed in or out.

With messaging apps stealing all the thunder these days, Yahoo also wants to grab a slice of the pie and its idea for such an app is an interesting one. Livetext, as the name suggests enables the user to share text as well as video, which will be devoid of any audio. This allows for some interesting use-cases, such as sharing one’s reaction to a message, cheering at a cricket match, etc. The app doesn’t follow other messaging services with group chatting option as it only offers one-to-one messaging.

Games

Toskyr is suffering from a plague due to the evil plans of Black Dahlia and Toskyr’s Czar has turned to you for help in getting the kingdom free of both the plague and its creator. The title has a combination of match-3 puzzle game as well as an intense real-time combat in RPG format. You can customise your character with over 900 skills and gear and with more than 60 levels, the game keeps you addicted.

If you’re looking for a casual game with a calming soundtrack, then Gathering Sky might fit the bill. The game has a simple gameplay where you start with navigating single bird in the sky, which soon becomes a flock. You have to guide them in the sky and with the music playing the background, the game turns into a zen-like experience.

Space Marshals is tactical top-down shooter set in the outer space on the lines of a sci-fi adventure. You play as the special Burton, who is on a hunt dangerous fugitives after a disastrous prison break. The latest update brings chapter 3, the concluding part of the game. It brings forth more missions, weapons, gadgets and enemies along with gorgeous graphics.

If you are a fan of the Fallout game series, which is set in post-apocalyptic future, then its new spin-off game labelled Fallout Shelter might appeal to you. In the title, you’ll be in control of an underground vault and you build it to a proper residential place.